Wednesday, 21 January 2015

The Best of 2014 - The Results!



Happy 2015! What a year 2014 was for us! Our mission to make Arrow USA a reality began. We were named Label of the Year for the second year running by Home Cinema Choice magazine and also made lots of year-end 'Best of' lists. We got to meet lots of you at the various events and conventions we attended throughout the year and, thanks to this poll, we got to receive tons of useful feedback that can help us into 2015 and beyond! 

We were absolutely blown away by the sheer amount of entries this time around (which was the main reason the results are coming a little later than last year!) so a big thanks goes out to all that decided to enter!

Without further ado, a look at all the results. As some of the categories were so close this year (there were a fair few ties!) we've decided to include the first, second and third place choices for each category...

Favourite Arrow Video Release

1. Six Gothic Tales
2. The Stray Cat Rock Collection
3. Nekromantik

The competition was certainly tough for this one with many titles just missing out on one of the top three spots. But our Limited Edition releases proved most popular with the top all three spaces being occupied by boxsets. 

Favourite Arrow Academy Release

1. Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection
2. The Killers (1946) 
3. A tie between Sullivan’s Travels and Koyaanisqatsi + Powaqqatsi 

As we had suspected, our Camera Obscura set took the crown for favourite Academy release but was very closely followed by our December release of the 1946 version of The Killers. This category also presents us with our first tie with Sullivan's Travels and Koyaanisqatsi + Powaqqatsi sharing third place.

Favourite Artwork: Original
1. Phantom of the Paradise 
2. A tie between Night of the Comet and Killers Klowns from Outer Space
3. The Beast Within

A hugely popular category with all manner of votes and our second tie! It was the original art for Phantom of the Paradise that took the top spot, however.

Favourite Artwork: Newly Commissioned
1. The Incredible Melting Man 
2. Branded to Kill 
3. A tie between Nekromantik and White of the Eye

The competition was tough in this category too, with third place seeing yet another tie, this time between by Gilles Vranckx (Nekromantik) and Nathanael Marsh (White of the Eye). Gary Pullin’s amazing artwork for The Incredible Melting Man took a deserved first place, although Ian McEwan's Branded to Kill art was nipping at his heels and missed out on the top spot by just a few votes!

Favourite SteelBook
1. Phantom of the Paradise 
2. White of the Eye 
3. The ‘burbs 

Phantom of the Paradise takes the top spot once more – and, again, for its original poster! Our Zavvi SteelBook exclusives also proved extremely popular, with City of the Living Dead just missing out to The ‘burbs by a few votes. 

Favourite Special Packaging
1. Withnail & I 
2. Nekromantik 
3. The Complete Dr Phibes

A new category for 2014 which one which seemed to change daily as more and more votes came in. Once the polls had closed, however, it was our ambitious Withnail & I book-and-discs set that picked up the crown.

Favourite Extra
1. Audio commentary with the League of Gentlemen (Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith) - Theatre of Blood 
2. The original workprint cut of The ‘burbs 
3. Trapped in Lust (Aiyoku no wana, 1973) - bonus feature on Branded to Kill 

The League of Gentleman took the top spot with their brilliant commentary Theatre of Blood! Much like last year, bonus films and alternate cuts proved popular with the workprint of The ‘burbs and the roman porno re-imagining of Branded to Kill taking the second and third place spots.

Favourite Book or Booklet

1. Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection
2. Six Gothic Tales 
3. The Complete Dr. Phibes 

Our larger (and limited) books shot into the lead in this category and stayed there through voting. An honourable mention to Nekromantik which lost out to The Complete Dr. Phibes by just two votes.

Favourite Restoration

1. Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection 
2. The ‘burbs 
3. Withnail & I 

It was a great year for our in-house restorations which was reflected in your votes with three of them taking the top spots.

Most Wanted Title For 2015
1. Blood and Black Lace 
2. Kill Baby Kill 
3. The Female Convict Scorpion films

Fans of Mario Bava were out in force when it came to the Most Wanted vote. Blood and Black Lace flew into an early lead just days into the poll so we very much hope that our recent reveal of loaded SteelBook and Amaray editions have left more than a few of you pleased! 

We hope you enjoyed voting and congratulations to Andrzej Banas who won the competition and to runners up Danny Kelly, Michael Cockburn and Calvin MacKinnon! 

We will be running the poll again later this year so do keep note of your favourite releases over the coming year!

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